Posts Tagged ‘hospital quality’

University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), a national organization comprised of most of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, has ranked Emory University Hospital (which includes Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital) eighth in the nation in the 2014 UHC Quality Leadership Awards. This is the fourth consecutive year that Emory University Hospital has ranked in the top 10 for demonstrating superior performance in delivering high-quality care and safety excellence.

The Quality Leadership Award honors top performers in UHC’s Quality and Accountability Study, which ranks performance in the areas of: mortality, effectiveness, safety, equity, patient centeredness and efficiency. These rankings are the most rigorous in health care and look at how major teaching hospitals are doing in multiple dimensions of quality and safety. They are traditionally looked upon as providing the best, most non-biased national quality measurement system available for teaching hospitals.

Since 2006, we have been on a journey to have our two academic hospitals – Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown – rank highly by the UHC. In 2012, we met our goal as Emory University Hospital ranked number two and Emory University Hospital Midtown ranked number six. We have made outstanding progress, and ranked 2nd and 3rd last year. “We are proud of our successes, as our number one priority at Emory Healthcare is to provide safe, high-quality care for our patients,” said John Fox, president and CEO of Emory Healthcare.

A top ranking by UHC means more than just great care. Since UHC ranks only academic medical centers that typically treat America’s sickest, most complex patient cases, and a disproportionate number of patients who are uninsured, underinsured or indigent, ranking highly on the list of the 101 participants reflects the ultimate assessment of organizational performance in setting the standard in quality and safety.

Emory hospitals continue to be ranked among the best in U.S. News & World Report’s annual Best Hospitals guide.

U.S. News publishes the Best Hospitals guide annually to serve as a reference for patients who need a high level of care because they face a particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition or added risk because of other health problems or age. Three weighted factors are used to rank hospitals, including hospital structure, reputation and outcomes. Check out where Emory hospitals landed on the rankings:

Emory University Hospital

For the third year in a row, U.S. News and World Report named Emory University Hospital the number one hospital in metro Atlanta and in Georgia. Emory University Hospital includes Emory Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital and Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital.

Only 19 hospitals out of the 181 in Georgia ranked this year. To be considered, metro areas must have at least one million residents and must have at least two hospitals in that area that are either nationally ranked in at least one specialty or considered high performing in at least four specialties. State rankings follow the same methodology with two or more nationally ranked specialties or being named high performing for inclusion.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.

The rankings have been published at www.health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in print in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014-15 guidebook, available on newsstands on August 27.

As a friend of Emory Healthcare, you’ve likely been following our road to better deliver quality patient care. In 2006, we challenged ourselves to land in the University HealthSystem Consortium’s (UHC) top 10 ranking. In 2012, we met our goal as Emory University Hospital (combined with Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital) ranked number two and Emory University Hospital Midtown ranked number six. Today, we’re proud to announce that our journey didn’t stop there. Once again the only health care system in the nation to have two hospitals in the top 10 UHC simultaneously, Emory Healthcare congratulates Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown for ranking second and third, respectively!

A top ranking by UHC means more than just great care. Since UHC ranks only academic medical centers that typically treat more complex patients than most hospitals, making their top ten list of the 101 participants reflects the ultimate assessment of organizational performance in setting the standard in quality and safety. Essentially, they’re comparing apples to apples. As a patient, you can pick the best place for your family while resting assured that you’re receiving the highest quality care. We’re quite proud to be listed among our peer institutions from all over the country who also are committed to keeping Americans healthy by providing quality care.

After surveying nearly 10,000 specialists and sifting through data from approximately 5,000 hospitals, U.S. News & World Report has announced its 2013-14 rankings of America’s Best Hospitals and once again, our Emory hospitals have been placed among the best in the country, and Emory University Hospital has been honored as the best hospital in both the metro Atlanta area, and the state of Georgia.

Hospitals honored were ranked nationally in 16 adult specialties (e.g. cancer and urology) and also ranked regionally by city and state. Out of 60 hospitals in metro Atlanta, only eight hospitals were ranked as Atlanta’s best, and just 19 hospitals ranked this year out of 187 in the state of Georgia.

According to U.S. News, death rates, patient safety, and hospital reputation were just a few of the factors evaluated. Less than 150 hospitals were ranked nationally in one or more specialties. Learn more about how each of Emory’s hospitals performed in this year’s best hospital rankings:

Emory University Hospital – #1 in Atlanta, #1 in Georgia, Nationally Ranked in 5 Specialties, High Performer in 10 Specialties

For the second year in a row, U.S. News & World Report lists Emory University Hospital as the best hospital in Atlanta and the state of Georgia in its 2013-2014 Best Hospitals guide. (Emory University Hospital includes Wesley Woods Geriatric Hospital and Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital.)

Emory University Hospital Midtown – #3 in Atlanta, #4 in Georgia, High Performer in 12 Specialties

Emory University Hospital Midtown moved up a slot in each category from last year’s best hospital rankings, honored this year as 3rd in metro Atlanta and 4th in Georgia. Emory University Hospital was also honored as a high performing hospital in 12 different specialty areas.

Saint Joseph’s Hospital ranks 5th in metro Atlanta (up from 7th last year) and 12th in the state of Georgia in U.S. News & World Report’s 2013 guide to the nation’s best hospitals. Saint Joseph’s Hospital was also listed as a high performing hospital in three specialty areas.

U.S. News & World Report publishes Best Hospitals to help guide patients who need a high level of care because they face particularly difficult surgery, a challenging condition, or added risk because of other health problems or age. Three weighted factors are used to rank hospitals, including hospital structure, reputation and outcomes.

The specialty rankings and data were produced for U.S. News by RTI International, a leading research organization based in Research Triangle Park, N.C. Using the same data, U.S. News produced the state and metro rankings.

The rankings have been published at www.health.usnews.com/best-hospitals and will appear in print in the U.S. News Best Hospitals 2014 guidebook, available on newsstands on August 27.

When he begins to share his story, Joshua (Josh) Jamison will tell you that it starts much like it does for many of us. “I decided to start college at 18,” he says. “I had just bought a house on a lake and the boy-to-girl ratio was 3-to-1, those seemed like good odds,” he chuckles. It’s not until later in the story that his jovial attitude and carefree spirit might begin to surprise you. Josh has been through more physically in the last 12 years than most people have to endure in a lifetime, and yet, he continues to smile.

In 2001, Josh was in Snellville, Georgia, heading home on I-24 when he was struck by an 18-wheeler. The physical damage was severe. His head was split open and he was unconscious. Thankfully, he had a friend with him, who called 9-1-1. Josh was lifeflighted from the scene and it wasn’t until weeks later that Josh came-to from his coma. “All I remember is that I woke up at Emory,” he recalls. “After a month, I started to remember things. I was paralyzed on my right side for some time. A lot of it is still very fuzzy.”

Josh didn’t return to school after the accident, but he did return to work. Having worked much of his life in hands-on jobs, Josh got back into the swing of things working as an arborist. At 26 years old, he was on the job hanging a tree, or taking it down vertically (as opposed to horizontally, which is typical). Somewhere in the process, the tree fell as planned, but not in the place where Josh expected it to. The tree came down on Josh’s foot, which was shattered, cut open, and badly damaged. He was initially sent to a local area hospital that told Josh the outlook wasn’t good– they were going to have to amputate his leg from the knee down. Being an active and young man at the time with a mom who he describes as “great at researching medical caregivers,” Josh wouldn’t accept amputation and immobility as his future.

He was again transferred to Emory, where Dr. Culbertson told Josh that they would be able to save not only his foot, but his leg as well. “He used my back muscle to repair my foot. They amputated my big toe instead of my whole leg, and grafted the muscle to preserve its function. I still have my balance and I don’t have to use a prosthetic limb.” After two major accidents in a 4 year window of time, Josh vowed to return to school, this time, not because of the promising 3-to-1 male-to-female ratio, but that didn’t stop fate from intervening, “That’s when I met my wife,” he recalls with a sigh of relief.

You’d think for Josh, it was “happily ever after” from there, right? Not so fast. Only a few months ago, in late 2012, when using a backpack blower while atop of a flat roof, Josh slipped. He landed on his elbow in the concrete driveway below. The impact shattered Josh’s elbow and was yet another blow to the healthy outlook on life he had regained after the previous two accidents. Once again, Josh chose and was treated at Emory, this time, by Dr. Claudius D. Jarrett, who would go on to repair Josh’s elbow. “I’m still in rehab for that one,” he adds.

After 12 years and three accidents, Josh opted to steer clear of jobs that required manual labor. “I’ve actually retired now and I’m happy. I have my wife, my life and my health thanks to the doctors at Emory.”

September 14th, 2012 By John T. Fox, President & CEO, Emory Healthcare

Dear Friends in the Atlanta Community,

Emory Healthcare is proud to care for the residents of Atlanta and Georgia, and we want to thank you for trusting in us to deliver quality patient care. You can take comfort and pride in knowing that Emory Healthcare is the only health care system in Georgia to have hospitals ranked among the top 10 academic health systems in America for quality and accountability by the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). As the authority on quality for academic medical centers, UHC included not just one, but TWO of Emory Healthcare’s hospitals in its top 10 list. No other health care system has ever had TWO hospitals in the national top 10 UHC list simultaneously.

A top ranking by UHC means more than just great care. Since UHC ranks only academic medical centers that typically treat more complex patients than most hospitals, making their top ten list of the 101 participants reflects the ultimate assessment of organizational performance in setting the standard in quality and safety. In 2006, Emory Healthcare established a goal to achieve the UHC top 10 ranking and took on the challenge of meeting the rigorous standards UHC sets for measuring attributes of quality, safety and patient service. We are proud to have achieved this goal for our two largest teaching hospitals – Emory University Hospital (combined with Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital) ranked #2 and Emory University Hospital Midtown ranked #6.

There is no secret sauce to this phenomenal achievement. It is the result of years of your intense work, scrutinizing and improving the quality and safety of care we provide and never accepting “good enough.” It is the result of teams across our entire organization that have firmly resolved to do better and better each day for our patients.

What does that mean for you? It means that:

Because of Emory’s patient- and family-centered care approach, when you walk into an Emory facility, you can count on receiving top quality patient care.

Every single patient who enters our hospital and clinic doors is treated like a VIP.

Success is measured in the number of lives we save.

As a patient, you will have less time in a hospital bed and more time at home with your family.

At Emory, we’re committed to continue restoring Atlantans back to health. I would like to personally thank our more than 16,000 dedicated professionals—physicians, nurses and staff who are obsessed with quality—working around the clock, always searching for better ways to save lives and help you get and stay well. What we do at Emory Healthcare helps create a healthier Atlanta and Georgia. We have more work to do on additional improvements, but want to share this key milestone with the communities we serve. Thank you.

Sincerely,
John Fox
President and CEO, Emory Healthcare

Learn More About Hospital Quality Measures & What They Mean:

When you’re trying to price a car, you probably go to the Kelley Blue Book. When you’re looking for a go-to restaurant rating system, you probably choose Yelp or Zagat. When you’re looking for a cancer treatment center, you probably make sure it is designated by the National Cancer Institute. So, when you choose a doctor, or a clinic, or a hospital, what resources do you have to help you make that decision? Aside from the input of your trusted friends and family members, or checking out a health care system’s website, there are many organizations that seek to help patients make decisions about where they seek their care. Some of these organizations rank hospitals with hard data, i.e. – metrics on quality levels and patient outcomes, or by program survival rates. Others seek to measure quality as it relates to consumer or marketplace perception, and some even use fee-based systems, excluding hospitals who don’t pay to participate.

So if you want to make sure you can trust your health care team, you probably also want to make sure that the ranking system you employ to choose them is also trustworthy. Here are 3 things to look for when you choose what hospital rankings you rely on to choose your care provider:

Hard & Tangible Data

Whatever ranking system you choose, make sure that it uses reliable, unbiased data. As an example, some hospital rankings system includes data such as mortality rates, but be careful here. Mortality rates should be adjusted to take into account how sick patients were when they arrived at the facility; otherwise, the data is misleading. Make sure the ranking system you choose is straightforward in its disclosure of how ranking data is collected and used.

Validation from Independent & Credible Industry Associations

Just as there is a large volume of rankings out there, so too is there a large volume of established and reliable accrediting and governing organizations in the health care space. Ranging from large governmental organizations such as the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the American Medical Association (AMA) and the reliable publications they produce, i.e. – Journal of the American Medical Association, to nonprofits such as the American Cancer Society, there are organizations out there you can trust to give you the honest scoop on what you should look for in your care team and what ranking systems do a good job of helping you find them.

Collaboration in Rankings

If it was up to the organizations being ranked to choose their rankings, every business would be #1. It’s important when you choose a hospital ranking system to rely on that you also know who was involved in the process. In general, rankings that incorporate input from consumers, hospitals, physicians, and accrediting organizations are the most reliable. Look for rankings that are tangible and transparent in their language about who is involved in the selection process and how entrants are qualified.

What else do you look for when picking a hospital, clinic or doctor? Do you use ranking to help inform your decision? Let us know in the comments below!

Related Resources:

If you frequent our health care blog, engage with us on Facebook or Twitter, or have spent any time on our website, you have probably noticed that there is a theme woven through all Emory Healthcare’s presence. That theme is our dedication to our top priority here at Emory Healthcare, which is to provide high quality health care that is truly patient-centered. Because this mission is the focus of our Emory Healthcare team, five years ago, we implemented a five-year strategic goal to hold ourselves accountable in achieving it. That goal was to rank in the top academic medical centers in UHC. To anyone who doesn’t work in health care, you may be wondering what UHC is and why the organization’s rankings matter.

UHC was formed almost 30 years ago, and is an alliance of 114 academic medical centers and 255 hospitals affiliated with those academic medical centers. As described by UHC, their vision is “to help members attain national leadership in health care by achieving excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness.” To reach this goal, UHC uses quantifiable measurements of hospital quality and hard data to determine how academic medical centers measure up in their ability to provide the highest quality patient care.

Since we challenged ourselves to set the pace for academic medical quality five years ago, every individual that makes up the Emory Healthcare team has played a role in our commitment to quality patient-centered care and has been regularly reminded by our Emory Healthcare leaders of the improvements in our quality rankings as a result of our team’s efforts.

After setting a very lofty organizational goal five years ago, we are extremely excited to announce that our team’s commitment to providing high quality patient-centered care has paid off in a big way. Not only did we reach our goal, but this year, UHC has recognized these efforts and the undeniable data that demonstrates Emory Healthcare’s commitment to quality. As of 2011, UHC ranks the quality of care provided by Emory University Hospital (including Emory University Orthopaedics and Spine Hospital) as 10th among the more than 100 academic medical centers ranked by UHC. The quality of care provided at Emory University Hospital Midtown has been equally as impressive, as it ranks 11th by the UHC. The 2011 UHC rankings mark the first time in UHC history that two facilities from the same organization have placed this highly in the rankings of hospital quality.

Just last year, Emory University Hospital and Emory University Hospital Midtown were ranked 45th and 42nd, respectively. The significance of our jump in the rankings is a true testament to the compassion, dedication and commitment of our Emory Healthcare team to truly put our patients, families and community first by devoting themselves to providing the highest quality of care. It’s also a testament to our patients, families and communities who entrust us with providing them the highest quality care each and every day. We thank our entire Emory Healthcare family and community for their critical role in helping us achieve a goal that has such a positive impact on all of us.

This Web site is provided as a courtesy to those interested in Emory Healthcare and does not constitute medical advice and does not create any physician/patient relationship. Also, Emory Healthcare does not endorse or recommend any specific commercial product or service. This Web site is provided solely for personal and private use of individuals accessing this information, and no part of it may be used for any other purpose.